Arizona schools vie for grants for innovation

Imagine this: A kindergartner logs on for the first time to a personal online profile that documents his academic achievement. In middle school, his teacher notices he’s struggling with pre-algebra, so she downloads resources specifically tailored to him. In high school, a counselor looks through the student’s progression since kindergarten and sees that he should be college- and career-ready by graduation.

Sound too futuristic? Not so, says Peoria Unified School District Superintendent Denton Santarelli. Inspired by a Microsoft framework called Student 360, the district hopes to develop an online network that will function like a Facebook profile but with the focus on academics rather than friends.

The only catch is the district will need $30million to $40million in Race to the Top funds to make it a reality.

Winning that money may prove difficult as 371 applicants from school districts across the nation compete for 15 to 25 awards totaling nearly $400 million.

Race to the Top is a federal grant initially created as an incentive for states to improve student achievement through innovation and reform. This year is the first time Race to the Top is open to individual school districts.

Kristina Allen, director of grants and partnerships at the Tucson Unified School District, said the money couldn’t come at a better time.

“Across the board, all districts have seen resources dwindle,” she said. “These injection of funds will provide us with a bulk of the resources so we can really move forward and in a short period of time make substantial change.”

Tucson proposal targets math

Tucson applied for between $30 million and $40 million primarily for professional development in math, its most troubled subject area. The district’s 2012 AIMS results showed math scores far below reading scores at nearly all grade levels.

Like Peoria, Tucson also hopes to create a data-driven online system accessible to students, parents, teachers and administration that would track a student’s progress through the years.

Peoria consulted with Microsoft to brainstorm its proposed online network, dubbed Peoria 360. If awarded, most of the funds would go to creating the website, developing academic resources for the website and training teachers to effectively use the system.

“We’re trying to enrich our use of technology in order to leverage that personalization experience,” Santarelli said.

Last December, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Arizona a $25 million Race to the Top grant, but only half the money is expected to be distributed on the district level.

The rest goes to regional education centers, standards implementation, data systems, the Governor’s Office of Education Innovation and the Arizona Department of Education.

In the Dysart Unified School District, only about $50,000 over 3.5 years will trickle down from the state award — a small number compared with the $30 million that the Surprise district applied for in this year’s competition.

Dysart teamed up with the Avondale Elementary District and the Florence Unified School District on the grant in hopes of increasing professional development for teachers in all three districts.

The districts would also create a database to link student achievement with teacher performance.

“If you don’t have good data to show that what you’re doing really matters, then why are you doing it? Research says it’s going to make a difference, but we want to make sure that it really is,” said Cyndi Miller, assistant superintendent in Dysart.

Without the grant, however, most districts say they would have to scale back or ax their plans completely.

“We’re all going to move towards improving teacher practice and student achievement,” Miller said. “It would just take us longer.”

Not every district in the state threw its hat into the ring. Only half of the 24 Arizona districts that submitted a letter of intent applied.

Deadline worried some districts

Some said they didn’t meet the criteria, while others noted limited resources for a time-intensive grant applications with a short deadline.

Applicants must serve at least 2,000 students or work in a consortium of at least 10 local education agencies, and at least 40 percent of students must be from low-income families.

School districts had a little over two months to apply. Deadlines were extended for those affected by superstorm Sandy.

“Like many other places, after we read through and looked at what the priorities were, we just didn’t meet the parameters,” said Melinda Romero, executive director for professional development in the Chandler Unified School District.

“Since we all wear many hats, undertaking a project of this size was just notpossible with all of the other demands that we have on our plates,” said Karen Tankersley, assistant superintendent in the Litchfield Elementary District.

Districts should hear back sometime in December. If awarded, the funds are expected to be used for the 2013 to 2017 school years.

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